i82 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



and had obviously been very recently eaten, and since it may be assumed that the whales are surface 

 feeders (p. i68) it may be concluded that this particular one was harpooned while feeding on a surface 

 swarm of gravid E. superba} Again it may be noted this record comes from a region only represented 

 in Dr Bargmann's material by samples obtained outside the breeding season. Finally, it may be noted 

 that the scarcity of gravid or near gravid females upon which Bargmann comments may be associated 

 in no small degree with the comparative ease with which these very large euphausians, ranging from 40 

 to over 60 mm. in length, can in broad daylight, and even in darkness (p. 265), avoid the surface nets. 



SHELF WATER 



TOTALS 



OCEANIC WATER 



TOTALS 



TOTAL PER 3444 i^ 

 STATION 26- 



.66 53 52 25 118877666443222222221 I I I I I I I I 



I I I I I 



* ST 2594 * ST 1283 •{■ ST 540 J ST 2603 MANY 2X0 NAUPLII ACS ANTARCTIC CONTINENTAL SLOPE 



IN I500-I000M NET 



Fig. 19. Vertical distribution of every gathering of krill eggs recorded in vertical nets in shelf and oceanic water. 



Among the very large series of vertical net samples analysed since Eraser's work was published we 

 found, as Fraser found, only one that yielded eggs in any real measure of abundance. This was 

 at Station 2594 in the eastern part of the Weddell drift where the deep 1500-0 m. net, which as already 

 mentioned (p. 100) I presume must have fished for some time in the cold bottom water, produced the 

 very substantial total of 3444 eggs. The complete record of the occurrences of the eggs identified by 

 Fraser, Fry and me is shown in Fig. 19 from which it will be seen that, apart from the notable 

 exceptions provided by Stations 540 and 2594 and possibly also by Station 1283, the eggs for all 

 practical purposes have never been encountered in anything other than negligible numbers. Our 

 almost total failure to sample the enormous masses of them that must exist somewhere in the Antarctic 

 seas is brought still closer to reality if one takes into account the very large number of occasions 

 when during the long spawning season our nets were fished with negative results. For during that 

 period, in the shelf and oceanic water of the East Wind- Weddell system, no fewer than 528 stations 

 were made representing a grand total of approximately 2734 operations of the vertical net of which 

 only 162, or just under 6 %, were positive. 



Our failure, all but twice, to strike the eggs in mass, leaves an unfortunate blank in our data which 

 perhaps for long will remain unfilled. It might be suggested, however, for the sake of future investiga- 

 tion, that having regard to the vertical distribution of those at Station 540 and of the Nauplii at 



* Whales have also been reported feeding on swarms of spent krill (Nemoto, 1959), from which a parallel conclusion can 

 be drawn. 



